In 2015, Bryanne Leeming was daydreaming in class at Babson
College. “Two words came into my mind: electronic playground,”
says Leeming, 28. The idea kept her at her computer until 3 a.m.,
as she Googled everything from “MIT Media Lab research” to the
toys she’d played with as a child.

That daydream evolved into foor tiles dubbed Unruly Splats,
because their embedded blotch-shaped lights resemble spilled milk.
Splats light up and make sounds, including speech, as kids race
around and jump on them. Using an app, children can program the
Splats to change their responses, modify preloaded games, or simulate musical instruments.

Leeming’s bigger game is to teach kids coding and STEM whileRISING STARSA SPLAT-TACULAR STARTCAN YOU TEACH KIDSHOW TO CODE DURINGPLAY TIME? UNRULYSPLATS DO JUST THAT.

ungluing them from screens and keeping
them active. Her company, Unruly Studios, has already had a successful Kickstarter campaign, raised $600,000 from
investors, landed in an Amazon accelerator, and scored staf and advisers from
Mattel, Disney, and MIT Media Lab. In
August, it won the Small Biz Salute Pitch
Of, a contest sponsored by the UPS Store
and Inc. that drew thousands of applicants from across the U.S.

The daughter of New Hampshirerestaurateurs, Leeming has long imag-ined a career among kids. For the frstprototype, Leeming cadged some engi-neering advice, and then she and herhusband went to Home Depot and “spentthe weekend building aframe,” she says. “Then Iwent to a maker space andlearned how to solder anduse Arduino,” a prototyp-ing platform for interactiveelectronic objects. Theresulting 4'X4' woodsurface, embedded withelectronics, barelysqueezed into her car when she carriedit to schools and other sites so kids couldtest it. (More than 3,000 have.)

Splats now comprise multiple tiles.Leeming had assumed her team wouldsupply game ideas. But, she says, aftersoliciting feedback from kids at everyaudition—and winding up with hun-dreds of new ideas, mostly executed incrayon—“I realized how much better itwould be to open it up and let kids makeThe approach is resonating. “Quite afew students whom teachers had identi-fed as uninspired really took to Splats,”says Jason Behrens, innovation directorfor Somerville, Massachusetts’s publicschools, where ffth- and sixth-gradersat Winter Hill Community InnovationSchool piloted Splats earlier this year.

Currently, two tiles cost $149.99, and
Unruly Studios is fulflling orders from
its $42,500 Kickstarter campaign, along
with those from the 20 or so schools
piloting Splats. “When we talk about
coding, people think the marketplace for
schools is the computer lab,” says Amon
Millner, an assistant professor at Olin
College of Engineering and an Unruly
advisor. “The gym can be part of that
landscape.” —LEIGH BUCHANAN

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